#also similar concerns have happened within the visual art industry and field before! within many different art fields actually! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

beaumesadieu · 3 years

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Creative Problem Solving Methods Interviews

Name: AM

Industry: Associate Branded Content Editor at Who What Wear (4 years of experience in the digital media industry)

Summary:

As an editor, it’s AM’s job to keep an eye out for the latest fashion and media trends. Almost all of her writing is done for specific fashion clients so she usually has to take their direction and transform that in a way that meets their criteria and echoes WWW voice.

It’s so important for her to know what's popular to the WWW audience so she often gets inspired by her very own readers. “Instagram is such a huge hub for inspiration because there is such a huge variety of people, shoppers, and readers all in one app. My coworkers also inspire my writing and point of view so much. They’re seasoned writers with such compelling approaches to storytelling so I always look to their pieces as sources of inspiration.”

2) What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

This is typically a seasonal issue that she faces as an editor, but oftentimes clients will ask for stories surrounding the same exact theme which puts her in a creative rut. For example, a major theme this fall has been denim and she has had to write eight stories about denim while making them all sound completely different to avoid contradiction within her writing or competition on the Who What Wear website. When this happens, she turns to the branded content team for advice because a second or third perspective is always helpful when brainstorming. She also reads other publications to get an idea of what is being talked about in the industry at the moment. She says it could even be as simple as scrolling on Instagram and reading the comments on major denim brands to find that one distinguishing factor. “Usually, these techniques work well either alone or all together when overcoming a creative rut like the one I mentioned!”

3) What process(es) do you use to solve problems? (Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation)

Problem-solving is an important part of her role as an editor because there are several teams and shared responsibilities that allow one single story to be published on the website. She’ll receive a request from the client services team to create headlines for a story focused on particular products or themes. Once a headline is approved by the client, she has full control of how the story looks and sounds. “I read the latest articles on the site to get my creative juices flowing and then I build out the story including priority products and key phrases. Because I’m not in direct communication with the client, it takes a bit longer for me to receive approval or links which can affect the intended timeline. When I can sense this happening, I turn to a coworker for assistance.” If they cannot help, she then takes it upon herself to make adjustments to the schedule. She makes sure she communicates with everyone involved to make sure that she’s not creating more problems as she attempts to solve the current ones. “Whether I’m in the inspiration or implementation phase, I truly value collaboration. Of course, I can solve problems on my own but I find that my solutions are more effective when I can get the experts involved.”

Name: JB

Industry: Business Consultant at Protiviti

Summary:

1) How do you generate ideas? How, when, and where are you inspired? What inspires you?

JB generates ideas in several ways depending on the situation. She believes the primary mediums that inspire her or help her in creating a solution to a problem are through her network, research, and spiritual methods such as praying and journaling. She described even simple issues such as finding an outfit she will draw inspiration from others such as Pinterest. Professionally, she believes her process is the same way concerning her project-based assignments in which collaboration from her network/team is crucial.

2) What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

The obstacles she faces would be fear in sharing new ideas and thinking it may not be good enough. In her role, it requires a lot of brainstorming and ideation in order to improve business processes for international clients. Questions that sometimes rack her mind are is this idea already taken, is it innovative enough, will it be feasible to implement in the given time frame. Also, timing and a lack of resources are impending obstacles in her day-to-day operations. In order to overcome these obstacles, she believes in stepping back and taking a break while also asking for help.

3) What process(es) do you use to solve problems? (Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation)

Lastly, JB described her process as such:

Awareness of Problem

Assess

Identify the audience

Brainstorming/Information Gathering

Research

Design Thinking

Prioritize

Simplify simplify

Plan of action

Feedback

Repeat

Name: KD

Industry: Freelance Designer, Curator, and Musician

Summary:

1) How do you generate ideas? How, when, and where are you inspired? What inspires you?

KD draws inspiration through sensory experience such as her daydreams, touch, and thoughts in her head. Through actively engaging herself in these day to day sensual activities she grows more in tune with the art she feels led to bring to life. For example artists such as Beyoncé and Lauryn Hill show her the power of storytelling and how the effective use of art, music, design and talent can create something magical. By studying the artists she loves, she is constantly learning and leaving inspired. She also finds herself inspired when she steps outside of her comfort zone and delves into differing stylistic expressions. This process helps her push back her normal creative parameters and issues her to create something fresh and new each time but still staying true to unique style and self.

2) What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

Personal: when designing she gets caught up in the technicalities. Her desired vision is not coming to life on the screen.

Difficulty 2: classification naming in her industry. Harder to access and figure out where go

Team-Based:

Working with others when normally she has to work on her own, it sometimes gets hard trying to ensure the different designs and aesthetics can come together to create something even better than what the team tmshined. Hard to fuse the differ viewpoints

She has learned to overcome them by reaching out to her network in the design field. She finds this most helpful and helps her quicker than google would.

3) What process(es) do you use to solve problems? (Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation)

Personal: KD first begins to write it down and talk through it as she is a visual processer. She tends to have so many concepts / ideas and never wants to forget so she writes every detail no matter how minute it may seem. Next, she steps away from the actual problem or idea right at the beginning and then she assessed what her prior idea was and now has a better perspective to tweak it. A fresh mind.

Key Takeaways & Final Thoughts:

After speaking with JB, AM, and KD about their processes, collaboration and teamwork are a huge factor in their success. I was interested in how JD incorporates a lot of design thinking and how frequently she has to work with others in her workspace. In my work, I spend a lot of time individually solving problems, which has led me to not really interact with others. Some of the things that stood out to me were AM’s processes and verbiage she used during the interview. Although we work in similar industries she focuses more on copy and editing while I focus on design construction and design concepts. It was cool to see how we connected but also the parts that differentiate us. KD’s rices was pretty interesting because she immediately steps away from the problem as soon as she writes an idea down. She would rather step away in the very beginning then come back and grind. I found it cool because normally people step away once they are stuck, age steps way right before she gets stuck. All three rely on sensual experiences, but some rely on spirituality/intrinsic motivations vs research/ public opinion. All these conversations were valuable as it gave me insight on the secret sauce that has helped my friends be successful in their careers and learn how to tweak my own problem solving processes.

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tomo-tron · 5 years

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My experience growing up as an Artist (and trying to get a job)

Buckle up, it’s a long one.

I’ve never really thought about doing an actual written blog entry on here before as I’ve normally not really had much to say and prefer to talk about my work. But I thought it could be helpful to share my personal experiences of trying to get work post-university from the perspective of an illustrator/artist. This could be helpful to you if you’ve just graduated, are thinking of doing a course at uni or are currently freelance and are wondering how to get your first break in a full-time art job. Emphasis on could.

So for those of you who’ve never met me (which is pretty much 99%+ of my followers), I’ve always drawn characters from games and comics etc. If I saw a character that blew my mind as a kid, I drew them. I had a big, lined, A4 notebook and drew in with biro pen. I drew in class when I wasn’t supposed to. I drew in my weekly planner for lessons (where you were supposed to write homework and deadlines etc) and then got into detentions because of them where I was even made to go through and cover them all up using paper and glue...Art at secondary school DID NOT help me. At all. A lot of schools don’t understand/recognise the games/comic/entertainment industry (or at least seemingly prestigious ones from the north where people make money by farming and/or settling into a mundane plane of conformative existence revolving around having kids way too early and peaking before you’re 25 before forever there after living in a bubble safely tucked away from the rest of the world and society). To be fair, schools have to cover a potentially very broad spectrum and kids don’t always know what’s best for them and where they want to end up. But sometimes kids DO know where they want to end up. To also be fair, my art teachers could see that fine art wasn’t my thing and that I was technically a good artist when it came to drawing, so they sort of gave me a lot of leeway when it came to work guidelines (one of my main teachers also looked and acted like Dean McCoppin from Iron Giant which was pretty much the best thing that could have happened there).

Anyway, moving onto University. In the UK, 2011 was the year the university fees basically tripled...The work I did at that school didn’t really help me much when applying for places. No one I knew wanted to do anything similar. And there were no adults who had any idea what I needed to do to get to the places I wanted either. So I was on my own. Suffice to say I failed at getting onto a 3 year course (which I’ve always imagined was potentially due to increased demand just before the fees went up). The lecturer doing a portfolio review with me said I had “too many werewolves” and the less said about all of that the better. I think maybe there was two werewolves, done in the same style the point of which being that one was male and one was female and I’d tried to make that visually evident. However, I was offered a place on a 1 year Art and Design course (yay...). Ironically, the foundation course turned out to pretty much help me un-learn EVERYTHING that I had spent the last 7 years being told to do. Crazy right? It annoyed me that I had to spend an extra year there (though not from the social point of view and uni life) and straight after the course, I finally began a 3 year Illustration and Animation course.

At 20 y/o (a year later than most) I started my 3 year course. I won’t say too much about the course itself as there’s a slight conflict of interest in regards to me potentially going back to lecture there soon. But in those 3 years, I gradually felt more and more comfortable to focus on producing work that I always felt I was supposed to be doing. Nothing great came out of my first year, the second year was arguably better/more professional and then finally in my third year I created a 26 page comic about monsters (which I drafted a good friend in to write the script for, bearing in mind he was on a course at the time too) which I called “Stubble” and it was the pinnacle of my artist achievements. It was a comic, but I had really developed these two characters from fairly in-cohesive and random creatures with rubber tire armour and boring shapes/silhouettes to these very much simplified, strange, stubble-y polar opposites of one another. So I figured that the ability to create characters and demonstrate that, would help get me into the games industry regardless, if I wanted to go that route.

Then we had the end of year exhibition where we could showcase our final major projects. This got me noticed by a nearby toy design company in the area. It was exactly what I’d always hoped would happen, a job offer fresh out of university. They loved my work and I did a small-ish art test for them before being invited to a job interview that went really well. Their only major concern was my art style and whether I could adapt it appropriately for the sort of work they did. I was 23 y/o at the time, I was still no expert and hadn’t spent a whole lot of time doing product design on my non-product design based course (surprise surprise). I didn’t hear back from them for a while and because I’d never applied to salaried jobs before, I just thought it was the norm. I moved to London with my then gf and pretty much lost all motivation artistically when faced with the real world and trying to make ends meet in the most expensive part of the UK as a poor ass ex-student. Six months later, they got back to me. It was a no. They wanted to stress I was very much in the running along with 2 other applicants and choosing between the 3 of us had been the subject of much debate. So that sucked. And then not long after my long-term relationship fell apart which was a nice addition so I was back to square one at home with mummy and daddy and a seemingly useless degree.

Thankfully, I had made some good friends who were still studying at my university and staying to live in the area afterwards to get work (they were all car designers). So at 24 y/o I pretty much begged them to let me move in with them so I could regain some independence and start again. I should probably mention that freelance work had been coming in post-uni in dribs and drabs. I was doing the work when I found it, but it was few and far between and not really helping me to create a uniform portfolio. I was applying to concept art and character art jobs where ever I could find them the whole time, despite really not having the portfolio to back them up because it was filled with irrelevant work such as cartoon cats I was doing for a legitimately crazy cat lady who was supposedly running a charity (but years later came to the conclusion she was more of an opportunist perpetually trying to reclaim her lost wealth and the life it had afforded her). I managed to end up working for Marvel and Lego which was weird. Though technically it wasn’t directly with either as the Marvel work was for a company who owned the rights to create licensed trading cards on Marvel’s behalf and the Lego job was outsourced to me through an agency that did media production and stuff for other companies. People always say to me “but the fact is you worked for Marvel and Lego”, and maybe it’s impostor syndrome speaking, but I don’t think they fully understand the way that kind of work...works (which is fine, but also perhaps trust the guy who’s been doing this for a living). I’d say I worked for Lego more legitimately than I did for Marvel.

24/25 y/o and my confidence was taking a beating. I kept thinking how it was never meant to be this hard (getting a job). I’d been told by pretty much everyone I’d ever met, professional and otherwise, that I was talented and yet I wasn’t getting anywhere. Add to that the fact I was having to watch all my friends find work in their chosen fields easily and I’m honestly surprised I didn’t have/haven’t had a mental break down of some sort (especially after seeing how some people my age reacted to small periods of uncertainty). I DIGRESS, I started getting bolder with my applications and began sending them to places I thought were too good for me anyway and that would need me to be some sort of artistic veteran to even stand a chance at being considered. I’d mostly stuck to companies within the UK at this point, but I was having to move further afield because I’d exhausted what seemed to be every single games company the UK had to offer and felt like my work was more appropriate for what I deemed to be as bolder and more imaginative US companies. At the time, I was obsessed with League of Legends and had begun to learn about the company behind them, Riot Games. So I thought “fuck it” and I sent an application to their studio in Hong Kong despite being terrified by the prospect of moving there. And guess what?

They got back to me.

Again, I don’t want to go into too much detail. But let’s just say I did another art test for this one. And then another. And then another. And then also another. I didn’t have a job, I was relying on my incredibly unreliable freelance work but pretty much prioritising the application process over everything else going on in my life. I was doing good work in my mind, quantity AND quality, the best of both worlds. I was pushing myself to get into a design frame of mind and applying my extensive knowledge of League of Legends to solve problems that I knew needed addressing in the best way I could.

You can see where this is going.

I didn’t get the job. I found out midday as I recall, which meant I had the whole day to wallow in self pity. But hey, I had a heap of new work for my portfolio. I was proud of it all for a few months at least and now I just feel like I have to include it in my portfolio because of how extensive it was and how much I threw myself at it. I realise now that quantity isn’t always the best thing. And I will never ever ever again draw that many iterations of a character in pencil with nice line work. It was a dumb way to work and it was slow as hell. You don’t focus on line work when you’re trying to develop ideas at an early stage, even if you’re trying to impress a big company. Part of the job is narrowing down ideas. But at the time I didn’t feel that it was my place to say what was and wasn’t good as I was trying to get in to a entry-level role and was expecting someone to make those decisions for me. I was the grunt, they were the overlord. Several months is a lot of time to exchange for a fairly simple lesson. Especially when you feel like you’re trying to play catch up in life and are now 2 years behind everyone else your age. But I’ve got to stress that I wasn’t an expert, I was still young and unlike most other people I knew, I literally had no one to advise me/ look to for tips. Which I think is something pretty much most artists go through at some point in their life seeing as we all end up pretty secluded.

The thing is, I felt obligated to share the work I did from that application because it’s unfair to ask someone to invest so much (UNPAID) time and effort into something without letting them then use that to further their job hunt if you’re to turn them down. Art tests in general are unfair. Apply the idea of an unpaid test to most other areas of employment - marketing, banking (even bar tender jobs will pay you half the standard rate if they’re trailing you for the day) and people generally respond with something like “yeah I wouldn’t do something like that unless I was paid”. Because it comes across like you don’t respect yourself. And yet that is unfortunately the world we live in as artists.

Moving on. Still 25 y/o going on 26, after posting pretty much all of that work on this very blog and whilst on holiday, I got an email from a guy called Ben saying he was from Riot Games and wondered if I wanted to collaborate on a comic together. I’d become accustomed to the word “collaborate” being synonymous with “free” so I was initially sceptical and didn’t think much of it. Instead turning my attention to the shrimps I was bbqing and jokingly telling my friends that some schmuck wanted to get free work out of me again. However, it began to become more real and eventually I understood that it was going to be a real job. Still freelance, but real. And for one of my favourite companies as well. I became one of 4 artists making web comics for Riot at the time and became pretty good friends with Ben. We made “Olaf Vs Everything” whilst the other horsemen of Ben’s apocalypse made “Crystal Quest”, “Academy Adventures” and “Punches and Plants” with him. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we had fun and did what we could with the limitations of the gig. Season 1 of the comic turned into season 2 and things seemed to be picking up. I was networking and making friends with like-minded artists across the world and suddenly didn’t feel so alone anymore.

I was super lucky to get invited to Riot’s HQ in L.A. along with a bunch of these other artists as part of Riot’s first Art Lab. It was a really crazy time in my life and didn’t quite feel real (sort of still doesn’t). I suddenly felt like I had something to back up my abilities to the friends and family around me and for once wasn’t a huge failure in my chosen field. It was a nice feeling and impostor syndrome definitely went away that week.

That was over a year ago now, which is nuts. But I still know all these guys (and more). They’re a very talented bunch and for the most part, it seems like we’re all watching each other grow and actively try to get our dream jobs. Unlike the majority of artists I met at university, who seemed to only be in it for the qualification and have long since given up pursuing a career as artists. But don’t get me wrong, there were definitely some talented folks who made it work and some who really deserved to but I don’t think have done. Skip forward a bit and I actually started work as a part-time lecturer at my university in 2018, teaching the students taking the same course I did all those years ago. Working with the lecturer who 6/7 years prior had said my portfolio had too many werewolves in it (it’s some sort of running joke). It’s nice to see that they seem to be slightly more thirsty for knowledge than my year group was. The quality of their work is also a better I’d say. More diverse. And every single one of them has a drawing tablet in their first year (most of my year group didn’t get them until 2nd year, some never did).

And now...

I spent the last few months actively sending out applications for concept art jobs again with my portfolio now containing my Artstation King Arthur competition entry in it (which has been helping me out more than I thought it would and you can see here: www.artstation.com/artwork/nQLePX). Side note - do an Artstation challenge if you can, they can be fun, push you and look great in your portfolio/cover letter. I found a job I really really really wanted that was nearby. It ticked all the boxes and almost seemed too good to be true. I did the procedural art test (unpaid of course) and had an interview. Everything felt good. Didn’t get the job. This time seemingly because of not being able to start immediately, despite the fact that all commitments I had had lined up for the next 2 months were completely cancellable. You can’t make this stuff up. So from now on, I will habitually write in capital letters on my cover letters “I CAN START IMMEDIATELY, I DON’T EVEN CARE IF I HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE STREETS IN BETWEEN WORK DAYS UNTIL I CAN FIND ACCOMMODATION, I’LL MAKE SURE I CLEAN MY TEETH BEFORE I COME IN AT THE VERY LEAST” as well as potentially screaming the word “IMMEEEEEDIATELYYYY” at any future interviewers upon hearing a “when can you start” related question. I would advise you to do the same. Well maybe not exactly the same, but y’know, just make sure they know you can start immediately. Bums in seats. Being able to start sooner = more important than being a good fit (sometimes anyway, so take that into consideration).

I’ve mostly spent this past year realising that if I ever want to have a moderately “normal” life (aka having disposable income) then I had to give up doing comics in favour of concept art. I’d already felt that way for a long time, but this year I’ve actively avoided committing to big comic projects because they simply aren’t worth the time and effort in most cases. And to note, I did have a completely separate portfolio of comic page samples I sent out to publishers in an effort to up my game and I got absolutely no where. I’m not trying to dissuade any one else from succeeding where I’ve failed by any means. But you have to be prepared to fail a lot and if you can deal with that then by all means you should try. But for me, I really don’t like the prospect of taking a huge backwards step at this point in life, and by that I mean moving back home where it’s rent-free. Perseverance is an admirable trait. Persevering despite overwhelming odds. And though there is a very big difference between quitting and knowing when to quit, I think artists more so than any other profession don’t really know how to quit. Which is a pretty brave thing in most cases. Meanwhile, with each year that passes I feel like I can relate more and more to episodes of the Simpsons where Bart and Lisa were all grown up and the major difference between the two career-wise. I love (ew grosss) my younger sister, don’t get me wrong (and don’t tell her) but she’s starting to make me look bad ahah.

Next month I’m going to be doing a crash course at Escape Studios in London learning how to model/sculpt and animate a character of my own design in roughly 4 weeks. I’m hoping that broadening my skill set to 3D will increase my employability. It will at the very least mean I can eventually apply to character art jobs and stand a chance. However, after that course I am potentially going to look for part-time/full-time work in an unrelated field of work because I don’t really have a choice.

I will keep looking for the concept art/ character art job out there that I know I’ll be good at. Because I’m in this for the long haul. And if you are as well, then I wish you the very best of luck and hope that something I’ve written here may help you out.

Your hairy neighbourhood friend,

- Tom

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luxus4me · 7 years

Link

Design your way http://j.mp/2zYSgZr

Are you familiar with data visualization tools?

The first thing that comes to our mind when someone mentions data visualization is bar pies and chart tools, alike those we’ve been creating in Microsoft Excel for years.

Business intelligence, however, evolved beyond our craziest expectations, and provided us with an array of modern methodologies to process and to visualize data.

These systems range from simple infographic builders to advanced systems that enable direct querying from multiple sources, and analyze billions of data rows in a matter of seconds. On a market like this, it will be a tough task to find an appropriate system for your needs.

To facilitate the process, this article analyzes the importance of digitized data processing, and puts forward the best data visualization tools to consider this year.

Here are few data visualization tools

Infogram

The first of these data visualization tools is Infogram. Infogram is one of world’s best known online inforgraphics tool that also helps create accurate and understandable charts. You can use its limited version for free, or purchase any of the two paid packages with over 200 maps, icons, and private sharing features.

The interface is a no-brainer, and charts are designed within minutes. The only bug customers mention is that their logos modify each time they embed interactive charts on their websites (happens only in the free version).

Plotly

Plotly was developed for graphing and web-based data analytics, and offers a solid library of chart types and social-sharing features. All of its elements are elegant and professional – once your data is inside, you can customize any aspect that could enhance their looks, including the legends, notes, layouts, and axes.

ChartBlocks

As indicated by the name, ChartBlocks allows users to build charts online. These charts are rather basic and limited, but the system still covers all common types organizations need to arrange their most important data. A distinctive benefit is that ChartBlocks pulls in data from several external sources, including local databases and spreadsheets. The charts can later on be embedded on websites and social media, or shared as PNG and SVG files.

Tableau

Tableau Public may as well be the leading BI and data processing platform in recent years, and an awesome productivity bundle that assembles graphs, charts, maps, and similar data visualization tools under the same roof. It is available for free, and lets you embed all types of charts on your websites. If lacking inspiration, you can check their gallery of visualization templates, and choose one that will work for you.

What distinguishes Tableau from its competitors is the quality of graphics and charts, which is why we believe you should definitely give it a second look. Excellent paid versions for additional functionalities are also available.

Datawrapper

Datawrapper is another one of these data visualization tools. With all CSV data uploaded to the system or pasted directly inside the field, you can trigger Datawrapper to geneate lines, bars, and other similar visualizations. Datawrapper is the favorite tool of many news and reporting organizations, as they need a dynamic system that will enhance their posts with live graphs and charts. Using Datawrapper is easy, but you can still check out some of the excellent tutorials available online.

Visage

Visage’s developers didn’t always agree on how to build a data visualization platform, but they were unanimous when it came to their product’s target audience – everyone. According to them, data intelligence bundled in a beautiful package should not be the gift of few financially powerful agencies and organizations, but a tool that even small businesses and start-ups can afford. The tool was developed in 2009, by NewYork’s industry leader Column Five.

Visgif

What if we told you that there is a way to combine accurate data visualizations with creative, animated gifs? This is made possible by the Visgif experimental platform, which makes use of animated GIFs to engage viewers and make information visualization techniques more understandable to non-techie audiences. It also supports a Google Chrome extension for the user to capture and share content as a GIF image.

Sketch

Sketch is a proficient digital design platform for Mac users, supplying them with the speed, flexibility, and power they need packed in a streamlined and user-friendly package. Designers can now focus on what genuinely matters to them – their designs. Sketch helps them do their job right at every stage, in particular as it offers Art boards and multipage support. Other popular features are the shared styles and symbols, thanks to which designers can locate and reuse elements they’ve already created. They won’t be challenged to create even complex shapes, as Sketch gives them first-class vector tools and layer styles for Boolean operations. As expected, the platform is based entirely on vector workflows, and can thus turn every design into a masterpiece.

Scriptographer

Scriptographer is the classic Adobe illustrator scripting plugin that lets you expand the functionality of this system with JavaScript language. It is the number-one choice of non-traditional designers looking for advanced tools and capabilities.

Sankey Diagram

The professional Sankey Diagram drawing platform will offer a plethora of one-of-a-kind possibilities: its diagrams are interactive, and come with moving flows and nodes. For instance, they will display flows whose width is absolutely proportional to their flow, and where each element can be tweaked and edited upon need.

Paper Js

Paper.js is the leading framework for vector graphic scripting you can find for free, built and running on top of HTML5 Canvas. It is recognizable by its clutter-free Document Object/Scene Graph modelling, and the variety of Bezier curves that make working with vector graphics a breeze for inexperienced users. All elements come packed on a hassle-free interface, and work seamlessly with Adobe CS6 and newer versions.

Pixcone

PixCone is the pioneer of data-driven inforgraphics, and a really powerful web editor that gives users total freedom to customize their infographics. Using it, you can rearrange your images, edit charts and canvas shapes in the last-minute, and add elements of your own. Among other things, you will also be able to add text in different fonts, sizes, and styles.

Infographics Presence

If you need a 100% live editor for your infographics, look no further than Infographics Presence. This platform drives infographics with a unique and modern creation technology, where you won’t have to preview, refresh, or reload anything in advance. The changes you made will be instantly visible, and display in a live layout on your page.

Infographics Presence will also supply you with different infographics elements, and work around several interesting shortcuts for you to customize them. Your possibilities to create beautiful content and engage your audience are simply unlimited.

Datylon

Datylon’s target audience are creative designers, who will for the first time be able to turn charts and maps into beautiful works of art. The analytic heavy-lifting is to be left entirely in the hands of analysts, who will have their data ready to use and arranged in story templates. All of the stories can then be shared among contributors and embedded on websites and applications.

Easelly

Easelly is a platform that enables users to create and distribute ‘vhemes’ (visual ideas and custom themes). All you need to do is to drag-and-drop your vheme onto the canvas, and turn it into an operable idea. As simple as that!

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator also holds the reputation of its dev company’s top rated creative suite, being a super-powerful and dynamic platform that will help you create staggering electronic illustrations. While it is commonly accepted that statistical tools are the best fit for creating graphs, it is only visual tools like Adobe Illustrator that offer the features and capabilities to make those graphs work in favour of a business. With this tool, you will have total control over your existing graphs, as well as a possibility to create new, hand-crafted inforgraphics. Here are some examples and references you can use: Billion-Dollar-A-Gram, Literary Organism, and Visualisations tagged with Adobe Illustrator.

Affinity Design

Affinity Designer is a smooth, fast, and very precise vector graphic designer for Mac users. It is the preferred system of marketers and website owners, fully equipped with icons, layouts, and other creative UI elements.

D3.js

D3.js, or Data Driven Documents, is one of the first names to ring a bell in the data visualization niche. All of us have at least once seen a beautiful chart or diagram rendered with D3, having in mind that the tool supports and uses SVG, CSS, and HTML. There is virtually no visualization D3 cannot produce, and the best part of the story is that it will produce it absolutely for free.

Note that D3 won’t blend that easily with your prebuilt charts, but that won’t be a problem with all out-of-the box chart templates collated in its gallery. What could be slightly more concerning is the steep learning curve, and limited compatibility (IE9 or higher). For this reason we suggest you to test it with older browsers before you decide to invest in it.

FusionCharts

FusionCharts is the crown of data visualization, and one of the most sophisticated, premium chart-and-map libraries to purchase nowadays. It supports more than 90 charts and 965 maps, and keeps innovating its service to keep users in line with recent trends. You can apply it on all standard and modern browsers, from IE6 onwards.

FusionCharts offers support for XML and JSON data formats, and allows you to export JPEG, PDF, PNG, and SVG charts. The tool is simply ideal for business users who need exclusive and rich dashboards, and inspiring demos.

FusionCharts’ impeccable reputation derives from the fact that maps and charts display well wherever accessed, and that the interactions with them are streamlined and highly customizable. All of this comes at a price comparably higher to the one of similar tools, but the investment is more than recommended for those who can afford it.

Chart.js

Chart.js is one of the tiniest, yet best known open-source chart libraries that supports 6 basic chart types: bar, radar, pie, polar, line, and doughnut. This combination doesn’t come as a surprise, having in mind that these types are commonly paired to accomplish a single project. For larger and more complex applications, however, we’d still recommend you toopt for more advanced libraries such as FusionCharts and Google Charts.

Chart.js makes use of HTML canvas elements to render responsive, flat-designed charts, and offers plenty of developing documentation available online.

Google Charts

Google Charts renders SVG/HTML5 charts to ensure cross-platform portability and cross-browser compatibility for Android and iOS users. The platform uses VML to support several older IE versions.

All commonly built chart types are already covered, including pies, bars, areas, and gauges. As this is a Google product, you can expect a familiar and friendly environment to work in, and plenty of premade templates you can tweak in line with your business specifications.

Highcharts

Highcharts is also a frontrunner in the charting arena which builds advanced maps and charts in a fashion similar to FusionCharts. Its best known feature is Highstock, a handy package full of stock charts considerably richer in detail than their traditional counterparts.

With Highcharts, you can export your charts as JPG, SVG, PDF, and PNG files. You can also access the product’s demo section to find some interesting chart templates. If you’re a non-commercial user, Highchart will be available for free. Businesses, on the other hand, can deploy it against a reasonably-priced single-payment license.

Leaflet

Popular developer Vladimir Agafonkin built Leaflet to let users prepare interactive maps for mobile screens. The first thing you will notice about it is the extremely small size (nothing more than 33kb), which still covers all important mapping features. To render maps in a way which suits all users, Leaflet uses both CSS3 and HTML5, and functions impeccably on mobile and desktop platforms.

You can also add features and expand its functionality with many different plugins, including heatmaps and animated markers. This is why Leaflet is a number-one choice for all users looking to embed maps in their apps or websites.

dygraphs

diygraphs is a JavaScript based, open-source charting library able to process huge data sets. It is very customizable, flexible, and fast, and works well on any major browser (IE8 included). Using it, you will also be part of a large and active community, and exchange experience eto leverage the most of what it can do for you.

dygraphs has already defined its use-case niche, and may not respond to all of your needs. Nevertheless, you can find some extra space for it and keep it in reserve, as it will certainly be useful for larger sets in future. Check the vendor’s demo to understand how this product works.

Raw

Raw developers like to call their product ‘the missing link between spreadsheets and vector graphics’, and they are in their full right to do so. The platform was developed and designed on top of D3.hs, and offers a very user-friendly interface where you don’t even have to register. The tool is also an open-source one, and you don’t have to pay in order to use it.

Raw’s library is still the best a free chart library can get, with a total of 16 chart types to consider, and in-browser data processing. Regardless of Raw being free and community-managed, it still guarantees top-class data protection, and lets users expand it in all desired manners (even to accept new and custom layouts).

Timeline JS

Timeline JS, as you probably concluded by now, is developed to draft functional and beautiful timeliness, and spare users the effort and coding expertise usually associated with this process. The tool is open-source and free, which is why it is used by thousands of companies worldwide. On its large list of prominent users, you will also find names such as Radiolab and Time.

Creating a timeline with Timeline JS will be very easy, as they system allows you to embed media coming from all external sources, and supports YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, Vine, Twitter, Google Maps, Dailymotion, SoundCloud, Wikipedia, and many similar platforms.

Of all the data visualization tools, how do we choose the best?

Once a decision to purchase a BI system is laid on the table, executives face their next, much more serious challenge – the significant gaps and differences between different data processing tools. They soon realize that each system focuses on a different scope of data, utilizes different sources, and focuses on different aspects of interaction with data.

Therefore, it is immensely difficult to get a system cut-and-ready for your business, and you have to check in detail its features and functions.

The first thing to check is definitely the type of visualization it supports, and compare those to the data you are collecting and the ways in which you would like to see it displayed. To be sure, use the vendors’ free trials and put the system in action with some real-time data. This will matter especially to companies that have standardized their data visualization procedures, and wouldn’t like to see it rendered in a different way.

Even if so, we recommend you to give new systems a chance, as you may actually like their fresh visualization methods, and activate them to unlock information you didn’t know you possessed.

Next, examine the data formats supported by the query tools. Ideally, you should get a large list of those instead of few basic ones such as SQL/NoSQL, and be provided access to specific app integrations such as SAP financials or Oracle. The best BI systems will integrate easily with leading email services and social media, as well as CRMs, marketing platforms, and similar business process management tools.

When it comes to Big Data processing, your first concern should be whether the system supports Hadoop or not.

Thirdly, get a clear picture of the tool’s ability to drill down to detail. Next to first-tier querying, what will that system demand to get to the bottom of your data sources? Can it examine in detail live data visualizations? Certain organizations will be fully dependant on it, as for them this is the guarantee that they will be able to change data stories and scenarios on dot instead of creating new visualizations.

The process is known as re-querying, and can only be completed using the natural language syntax used to create the visualization at the first place. You should keep in mind that the graphics you’re presented with are not simple picture, but live, highly interactive windows displaying your business health and value.

Then, move to the system’s exporting power. You should check whether the queries and visualizations you’ve created can be exported to other systems, and made available to third-party audiences. Your key options here should be to export files in various formats (PDF, JPEG, and CSV), or embed code snippets directly to apps and websites using their open programming interfaces (APIs).

In the best case, data should be displayed equally well on desktop and mobile screens.

Summing up, big data collecting business (or such that are about to embark on such offerings) should settle for nothing less than advanced processing. A good example of such functions is to find a tool that can query front ends for back-end warehouses, and let it handle all of the processing.

It won’t be easy to find such a tool, as back-end warehouses are constantly loaded with data, and may make it cumbersome to span your data sources out of the database. The BI system would have to perform excellently to crunch the query numbers, namely provide in-memory processing and similar first-class capabilities.

It is therefore essential to test-run these data visualization tools with actual complex queries, and see whether they can respond to your needs.

The best way to look at data visualization is it being the front, pretty face of your data intelligence, which may not change how you’re performing, but will give you a solid understanding of why you’re performing that way. Some organizations are fully dependent on such insights, and some don’t need them at all, but BI tools are in any case the most sophisticated systems a business can possess.

If looking for some advanced analytics yourself, this is the right time to examine different self-service BI tools and their data-crunching capabilities. For an even deeper, yet easier overview of how your business is performing, look at data visualization systems as well.

If you liked this article about data visualization tools, you should check out these as well:

Analytics Tools That Startups Should Use

Best ecommerce software to build an online shop

Best Help Desk Software And Support Ticket Solutions

Top Social Media Management Software And Tools

The post Data Visualization Tools To Visualize Information appeared first on Design your way.

http://j.mp/2zZYSqy via Design your way URL : http://j.mp/2arS45r

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jamiekturner · 7 years

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Data Visualization Tools To Visualize Information

Are you familiar with data visualization tools?

The first thing that comes to our mind when someone mentions data visualization is bar pies and chart tools, alike those we’ve been creating in Microsoft Excel for years.

Business intelligence, however, evolved beyond our craziest expectations, and provided us with an array of modern methodologies to process and to visualize data.

To facilitate the process, this article analyzes the importance of digitized data processing, and puts forward the best data visualization tools to consider this year.

Here are few data visualization tools

Infogram

Plotly

ChartBlocks

Tableau

Datawrapper

Visage

Visgif

Sketch

Scriptographer

Sankey Diagram

Paper Js

Pixcone

Infographics Presence

Datylon

Easelly

Adobe Illustrator

Affinity Design

D3.js

FusionCharts

Chart.js

Chart.js makes use of HTML canvas elements to render responsive, flat-designed charts, and offers plenty of developing documentation available online.

Google Charts

Google Charts renders SVG/HTML5 charts to ensure cross-platform portability and cross-browser compatibility for Android and iOS users. The platform uses VML to support several older IE versions.

Highcharts

Leaflet

dygraphs

Raw

Timeline JS

Of all the data visualization tools, how do we choose the best?

Therefore, it is immensely difficult to get a system cut-and-ready for your business, and you have to check in detail its features and functions.

Even if so, we recommend you to give new systems a chance, as you may actually like their fresh visualization methods, and activate them to unlock information you didn’t know you possessed.

When it comes to Big Data processing, your first concern should be whether the system supports Hadoop or not.

In the best case, data should be displayed equally well on desktop and mobile screens.

It is therefore essential to test-run these data visualization tools with actual complex queries, and see whether they can respond to your needs.

If you liked this article about data visualization tools, you should check out these as well:

Analytics Tools That Startups Should Use

Best ecommerce software to build an online shop

Best Help Desk Software And Support Ticket Solutions

Top Social Media Management Software And Tools

The post Data Visualization Tools To Visualize Information appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/data-visualization-tools/

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talabib · 7 years

Text

Leadership Journey: Richard Feynman

This is the story of a brilliant physicist, a man named Richard Feynman. Though most people have never heard of him, Feynman played a significant role in the development of twentieth-century physics. Indeed, his influence is palpable to this day.

Born on May 11th, 1918, Feynman would go on to have a major influence on physics in general, and quantum physics and super-fluidity in particular. He was also a part of one of the twentieth century’s most famous projects – a project that both pushed science forward and resulted in mass destruction. So let’s take a look at the life and work of this obscure genius.

As a child, Richard Feynman was encouraged to think scientifically.

Before Richard Feynman was even born, his father, Melville, made a prediction: if the unborn child turned out to be a boy, he’d become a great scientist. And sure enough, the prophecy came true – but this had a lot to do with how Richard was raised.

Melville was a second-generation European immigrant who’d settled in upstate New York. Though he had scientific aspirations, he felt that, as a middle-class Jew, his options were limited. So instead of pursuing his own dreams, he worked as a salesman and pinned his hopes on his son.

As a result, Richard was raised to see the world with a scientific mind. Before Richard could even talk, his father stimulated his son’s developing mind with tiles that contained blue-and-white geometric patterns.

Later, Melville would take Richard to museums and translate the facts and numbers on display into images that allowed his son to visualize, and therefore retain, the details. So, when describing a Tyrannosaurus rex, he told Richard that the dinosaur was tall enough for its head to reach his bedroom window, but that the head would be too wide to fit through it.

Melville also made sure Richard understood how and why things work – and how important this understanding is. One day, on a mountain hike, Melville asked Richard to identify each bird they encountered. Whenever Richard was stumped, Melville would recite the bird’s name in Chinese, Portuguese and Italian.

This may seem like mere showboating, but there was a larger point. Depending on where you are, different people will have different names for the same bird, names that tell you nothing about the bird itself. Real knowledge comes from observation and an understanding of what the bird actually does.

Much later, Feynman shared this insight while working on a school advisory board for science textbooks. The textbooks were written in vague language, such as this: “friction causes shoe soles to wear away.” Feynman pushed for more detailed explanations, such as “the grooves on a sidewalk grip chunks of shoe leather and tear them off.” It infuriated him that children were being taught unscientific information that didn’t include how things actually happen.

Feynman won math competitions using the same methods he would later apply to complex physics problems.

Even though he could breeze through his algebra exams in high school, Feynman had significant problems figuring out baseball and girls. He felt much more comfortable taking part in the math competitions held by the Algebra League.

Math classes generally place great importance on students showing the process by which they’ve arrived at a math problem’s solution; math competitions, on the other hand, require the exact opposite. What’s important is the solution, not how you got there.

And since these competitions are extremely fast-paced, using traditional methods to arrive at an answer is not the best path to victory. In other words, competitors have to use shortcuts. Feynman, who’d been raised to use visualization as a problem-solving tool, was great at this. Math competitions were the perfect place for him to shine.

While other students would try to blaze through a series of calculations, Feynman would only write out one thing: the answer. As the question was being read out, Feynman would often be struck by an insight and, with a dramatic flourish, he’d write a number and circle it as his answer.

One relatively simple problem involved a hat falling from a rowboat going upstream. Competitors were asked how long it would take the rowers to retrieve the hat if its loss went unnoticed for 45 minutes. The velocity of the water and the boat were given, but these details were distractions that Feynman didn’t need. He visualized himself as the hat and immediately realized that it would take the same amount of time to go back: 45 minutes.

This unique ability to visualize problems would serve Feynman well throughout his life and career. Fellow physicists often remarked on how Feynman would solve problems by putting himself in the place of an atom or an electron, essentially asking himself what he would do if he were an atomic or subatomic particle.

At college, Richard’s obsession with physics became all-encompassing.

During his first year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Feynman asked the chairman to explain what good his studying mathematics would do. Feynman was given the age old response: “If you have to ask, then it’s the wrong subject for you.”

Feynman was a math whiz, and was even allowed to teach a class during his senior year in high school. At college, however, he grew tired of math, as it became too abstract for him. As a result, Feynman turned his attention to physics as an undergrad.

During this time, Feynman’s love for solving physics problems grew, as did his ability to internalize the formulas in order to intuitively arrive at a solution. He hungered for more problems to solve and would even stop people in the corridors and ask them to show him whatever problems they were working on.

This deepening knowledge of theoretical physics did affect his performance in other subjects, however. He did worst in art history and English – but that certainly wasn’t the end of it. Feynman despised music so much that hearing it caused him to feel something akin to physical pain. His dislike for music was only topped by his disdain for philosophy, which he regarded as “an industry built by incompetent logicians.”

These reactions came from his upbringing. He believed that there was nothing more to mastering English or philosophy than learning words and names that humans had made up.

To get by, he cheated on exams by copying the work of nearby classmates. Nonetheless, his low scores almost cost him his career. When Feynman applied to Princeton for graduate studies, he was nearly rejected.

In 1942, Feynman joined the Manhattan Project and led a team that helped build the atomic bomb.

During the early years of World War II, many people were talking about the possibility of splitting the atom and thereby creating an atomic bomb. For the world’s top physicists, there was no debate about whether or not this would be possible – it was just a matter of time.

Many of these scientists were working at a top-secret facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to develop the world’s first nuclear weapon.

While finishing up his graduate studies at Princeton, in 1942, the twenty-five year-old Feynman was recruited into a nuclear research group known as the Manhattan Project – a team of scientists working on one question in particular: How much uranium is required to kick off a nuclear chain reaction?

Feynman was brought on board due to his reputation as a brilliant young physicist. But, soon enough, he was made the leader of his own team, a role that was generally reserved for veteran physicists.

Feynman gained their respect by pushing the team to find the most unorthodox solutions to the problems at hand. This process resulted in some complaints. To some, his theories and hypotheses seemed too outlandish – but, time and time again, the team’s subsequent work would prove his initial theories to be correct. After a few such successes, the team placed their full faith in Feynman.

The team found it rather easy to come up with the calculations required to build a bomb; it was dealing with the physical materials that presented the real challenge.

Feynman was no longer visualizing abstract scenarios. If the calculations for the melting point of a certain metal were even slightly off, it could spell death and nuclear disaster.

These concerns resulted in Feynman’s team producing important work on how to prevent bombs from detonating prematurely as well as calculating the precise critical mass of uranium for the nuclear chain reaction to start.

And, as we all know, all this careful work bore fruit. Just before sunrise on July 16, 1945, the sky over the New Mexico desert was set ablaze by the first detonation of an atomic bomb.

Feynman’s method of visualizing problems helped win him the Nobel Prize.

Some people say it takes between ten thousand to twenty thousand hours of practice to master a musical instrument. After all that time and work, the musician has an intuitive relationship with her instrument and improvising a melody becomes second nature – practically effortless.

Feynman’s genius worked in a similar way: the endless hours he spent visualizing problems left him with a superb knowledge of algebra combined with an intuitive feeling for physical forces.

Feynman’s understanding of mathematics became so thorough that it allowed him to work quite freely within the field of theoretical science. He could effortlessly translate a physical interaction into a formula, or vice versa, by visualizing an endless array of objects interacting across time and space.

Feynman was once asked if color played a role in his scientific process, and he said he would often see colors such as dark X’s or violet N’s when composing a formula. (He admitted that he had no idea whether his students experienced similar visuals.)

In 1947, Feynman made things a lot easier for students of quantum physics when he introduced his Feynman diagrams. At this time, Feynman published the results of work he’d been doing on electromagnetic fields and how they interact with charged particles.

It became immediately apparent that the diagrams he included in these findings introduced an ingeniously simplified way to understand complex equations. This was especially the case for quantum physics, where his diagrams obviated the need for every academic article to include a series of painfully complex calculations.

Nevertheless, Feynman had a hard time explaining his diagrams when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965. It was the middle of the night in New York when the recipients were announced. But, by dawn, reporters were at his door, asking him to explain his contribution to science. He did his best, but it still went over everyone’s head.

And when one reporter asked him to sum it up in one minute, he gave an appropriately gruff reply: “Listen buddy, if I could tell you in a minute what I did, it wouldn’t be worth the Nobel Prize.”

The few classes that Feynman taught became legendary among students and professors.

Even though Feynman is recognized as a brilliant teacher, he did an impressive job of shirking his pedagogic duties. But those who did manage to attend one of the few classes he ever taught paid witness to something special.

In his final university position, Feynman spent two years teaching the introductory course to physics at Caltech, providing an experience unlike any other. Feynman took his students on a whirlwind tour through the world of physics, reimagining the entire field from his own unique perspective.

Naturally, his course wasn’t about learning the names of things. Instead, he ensured that students understood concepts by encouraging them to visualize forces at work.

As the course went on, freshman and sophomore students struggled to keep up, and some dropped out. But it’s unclear whether Feynman was concerned about losing his target audience since professors and graduate students were more than eager to fill any empty seats.

Since his classes were so fascinating, and since Feynman never wrote any books on his work, many people recognized the importance of transcribing his lectures. These notes were eventually published in a series of little red books entitled Feynman Lectures on Physics. People took to calling them “the red books.”

Many universities tried to include the red books in their curricula, but, by and large, they were too complex for beginning students, and so were dropped. Nevertheless, many of the professors who read them cited the books as being instrumental in reshaping their views on physics.

This is largely due to Feynman’s insistence on teaching pragmatic knowledge about how to solve problems. The emphasis he placed on the process of problem-solving – as opposed to teaching the same route to the right answer – is a big part of Feynman’s legacy and his contribution to quantum mechanics.

And we still use the tools he left behind to measure things such as the light that is emitted by an atom. He also gave us many of the analytical methods used by physicists today, methods that shape how judgments about experimental data are made.

Feynman cultivated a reputation as a joker, but his legacy is that of a truly original thinker.

There are a number of reasons Feynman is remembered. Strangely enough, one of these is his bongo playing.

When you think of geniuses and their musical instruments, you probably don’t think of the bongos. Nonetheless, while he was on sabbatical in Brazil, Feynman decided to pick up a pair of bongo drums. Though he hated most modern music, Feynman liked the drums because they provided him with a way to improvise and create original music. And he even got good enough to play with a local band.

Feynman also had a reputation as a joker. He liked to tell fantastical stories, many of which are collected in the books Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? Much to the surprise of his publisher, both books became best sellers.

Like all good storytellers, Feynman stretched the truth here and there, but what his colleagues were more concerned with was the way in which the books played down the serious nature of scientific inquiry. It’s undeniable, however, that the books really do reflect a significant part of his character.

Another unique part of Feynman’s character was his willingness to ignore the work of others in order to think originally. He had serious worries about being influenced by other people's ideas; he feared they would interfere with his ability to innovate.

Therefore, he did his best not to read scientific papers, especially their first page, which contains the results. The only thing Feynman wanted to know was the first parts of a problem, so that he could solve it on his own.

This behavior didn’t sit well with some of his peers. This wish to solve problems alone was seen by some as irresponsible. Many of Feynman’s own brilliant ideas were never published since he didn’t think they were ground-breaking enough.

Other people found this habit of his discouraging after learning that he could solve a problem overnight, when it took others almost half a lifetime.

But taking the road (much) less traveled is exactly what Feynman did and it’s what he taught his students to do as well. Such independence of thought may not be a sure road to success – but it’s essential for true originality and, thus, true innovation.

Every scientist who met Richard Feynman regarded him as one of the sharpest minds in the field. But, despite his brilliance and his many contributions to physics, he isn’t a household name. He wasn’t a man with a single major theory; rather, he offered physicists a different way to look at the world and various methods for finding solutions through practical approaches. This contribution, though seemingly humble, has helped make physics what it is today.

#Leadership Journeys

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